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I have a confession to make. Not everything I post in the Late Night Movie House of Crap is crap. I have a lot of affection for much of this stuff. Sure, King of Kong Island is garbage no matter how you look at it, but I absolutely love the old Superhero Serials. I’ve seen them all and watch them from time to time. True, there is more than its fair share of crap here (Konga, Paul Lynde as Superman, and A*P*E come to mind- why are there so many bad giant ape films?) but there are also some things I really like- the cheesiness ofMr. B Naturalalways makes me laugh and I love Doctor Who.

And then there is this.

The Batman TV show is unabashedly goofy and silly. Is it crap? To be honest it straddles the line, especially in the third and final season when the budget was slashed to none. But the first two seasons? I love it. I call it- and you can argue- genius.

But here is the pr0blem. This episode is my all-time favorite. It is HYSTERICAL from start to finish, yet also amazingly silly and, yes, dumb. Just look what happens in the span of 30 minutes, minus commercials:

Batman and Robin get turned into surfboards.Batman and the Joker don their specialized surfing trunks.Batman whips out his handy Bat-shark repellant for only the second time (the first was in the movie.)The Joker has some strange plan to take over Gotham by winning a surfing championship.And I repeat- Batman and Robin get turned into surfboards.

There is more, much more. I love the soundtrack to this one, and Batgirl is in the mix too, but the highlight is the surfing championship. I could tell you who wins but why spoil the fun?

I’ve never figured out why the show (and the movie) was played for laughs. All in all, I give it high points for this (as you mentioned, the last season is just crap) but the first 2 are fun. But why did they do it this way? I’ll never know.

I’ve actually read articles on this issue. The theory is that by 1966 post Kennedy and during Vietnam, the American psyche was starting to feel sheeping about the Superman line of “truth, justice and the American way,” and the idea of superheroes and institutions in general was being called into question. As a result, Hollywood felt that a serious Batman wouldn’t be taken seriously but a campy, self consciously ridiculous Batman would appeal to the growing cynicism.